As such, there has been significant public demonstrations against the election outcome.

The below chart comes from the Citi report From Arab Spring to Russian Winter, which describes the vote as a "watershed moment" in post-soviet Russia. The fact that people are demonstrating highlights Putin's loss of grip; what's more, thanks to the mediocre economy, it may be hard for Putin to buy back the votes he needs.

You see, there's a decent relationship between areas in Russia that receive a high amount of government money, and those areas where people vote for the United Russia party (Putin's party).

The relationship was the same this year as it was in 2007 -- the more money the government spends in an area -- the more support United Russia gets. But the vote totals are down, and it's not clear that Putin can buy back his support.